Basque/Alphabet

The Unified Basque Language (also known as batua, which means unified in Basque) uses an alphabet that is not substantially different from the one used in Spanish. The 27 letters of the Basque alphabet are:

Letter

Basque name

Pronunciation

A

a

/a/

B

be

/b/

C

ze* (and its variant Ç ze hautsia*)

/s/, /k/

D

de

/d/, /d̪/, /ð/

E

e

/e/

F

efe

/f/

G

ge

/g/, /ɣ/

H

hatxe

∅, /h/

I

i

/i/, /i̭/

J

jota

/j/, /x/, /ʝ/, /ɟ/

K

ka

/k/

L

ele

/l/

M

eme

/m/

N

ene

/n/

Ñ

eñe

/ɲ/

O

o

/o/

P

pe

/p/

Q

ku*

/k/

R

erre

/r/, /ɾ/

S

ese

/s̺/

T

te

/t/, /t̪/

U

u

/u/, /u̯/

V

uve*

/b/, /β/

W

uve bikoitza*

/u̯/

X

ixa

/ʃ/

Y

i grekoa*

/i/, /i̭/

Z

zeta

/s̻/

The letters Cc, Qq, Vv, Ww, Yy are generally only used in foreign words in batua, but they may be used more frequently in the dialects, either as non-standard spellings or to denote phonemes that do not exist in batua. In addition, the letter ç may be used, especially in archaic spellings or in foreign words.

The Zuberoan (Souletin) dialect also makes use of the letter ü, which represents the French u or the German ü, a sound that doesn't occur in the other dialects nor in batua.